WATCH: Fireball captured in time-lapse video from International Space Station

The Packet

Published: Nov 17, 2017 at 3:38 p.m.

Updated: Nov 17, 2017 at 3:40 p.m.

The European Space Agency posted a time-lapse video taken from the International Space Station on its website Thursday showing a fireball falling to Earth. - Screen capture

The view from the International Space Station (ISS) is quite something to behold.

Throw in a fireball falling to Earth over the Atlantic Ocean and it’s even more impressive.

The European Space Agency (ESA) posted a time-lapse video on its website Thursday made up of a series of night-time photos taken by astronaut Paolo Nespoli on Nov. 5 that managed to capture the marvel.

The ISS was flying from the southern Atlantic over to Kazakhstan at the time.

“A fireball is basically a very bright meteoroid – a small bit of natural ‘space rock’ – entering Earth’s atmosphere and burning brighter than the background stars,” said Rüdiger Jehn of the ESA’s Space Situational Awareness Program.

“This particular meteoroid was moving much faster than typical, with an estimated speed of around 40 km/s.”

The fireball can be seen in the upper right of the frame between the between seven and eight seconds into the video.

The video also shows a huge lightning storm over Africa that is also quite stunning.